The present application relates to a display capable of performing two-dimensional display (planar display) and three-dimensional display (stereoscopic display), and an illumination unit suitably applicable to such a display as a backlight.
In recent years, improvements in image quality and energy conservation of liquid crystal displays have been accelerated, and systems achieving an improvement in dark-room contrast by modulating light intensity in a partial region of a backlight have been proposed. As a main technique of achieving an improvement in dark-room contrast, some of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used as light sources of a backlight are driven to modulate backlight light based on a display image. Moreover, in large-screen liquid crystal displays, as in the case of small-screen liquid crystal displays, a reduction in profile has been strongly desired; therefore, attention has been given not to a system in which cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) or LEDs are arranged directly below a liquid crystal panel, but to an edge light system in which a light source is arranged on an edge of a light guide plate. However, in the edge light system, it is difficult to perform a partial drive to modulate light intensity in a partial region of the light source.